IU inventors develop more than just Crest toothpaste

Anybody who has gone on a guided tour of IU has probably heard the Crest story. Yes, IU invented Crest toothpaste.

But there’s more.

The thing you bite on for a dental X-ray? Invented at IU. Ever complain about Oncourse? IU invented that, too.

IU has developed some pretty useful stuff. From medicine to information technology, it’s safe to say Crest toothpaste is not the extent of IU’s contribution to the civilized world.

But inventing something isn’t just about coming up with a great idea. There’s a lot of red tape involved, and it’s not cheap.

“The patent process takes years,” said Dave Wilhite, business development manager at the IU Research and Technology Corporation in Indianapolis. “When all is said and done, the cost of development could get up to $250,000.”

That’s where the IURTC comes in. It helps to facilitate patents for new inventions, as well as licensing those patents to companies that can pay for the development.

While they might see between 150 and 200 disclosures of inventions ideas a year, a much smaller number actually reaches the patent application stage. The reason lies in the strict legal criteria that determines what is technically an invention.

An invention must be novel, usable and non-obvious to someone in the profession, Wilhite said.

“If you have a biochemist with a Ph.D., their invention is going to be non-obvious to a construction worker,” he said. “But it also has to be non-obvious to someone else with a Ph.D. in biochemistry.”

The IURTC is a relatively new resource for IU inventors, but IU’s legacy of invention reaches much farther back.

The device patients bite on for a dental X-ray is called a Bite-wing film packet, used for interproximal bite-wing examinations, said Susan Crum, managing editor of IU School of Dentistry publications. It was developed in 1925 by IU graduate and former faculty member Howard Raper.

The IU School of Dentistry actually enjoyed a long and fruitful history of innovation, Crest toothpaste notwithstanding.

“IU has had a major impact on dentistry in a lot of different ways,” said George Stookey, distinguished professor emeritus and former dean of the IU School of Dentistry.

Stookey himself helped develop an anti-tartar diet for exotic animals, which is licensed to Purina Mills and is used widely in zoos.

IU dentistry researchers also played a crucial role in getting Indiana drinking water fluoridated. Today, not a single town in Indiana has un-fluoridated water, Stookey said.
For some people, these inventions could make all the difference in the world.

“One invention we’re working with right now is for cancer therapy, and it’s 20 years in the making,” Wilhite said. “It’s a career’s worth of work going into this invention.”